Scrappy Snowman Pillows

February 26, 2015February 24, 20155 Comments

My first finish of 2015!

These were made with the insane amount of snowman fabric that I found in my stash during the great stash re-organization a couple of months ago, and I thought I’d be clever and use it up in a project. Ridiculously, I have continued to find more and more of this fabric as I continue to unpack. I’m drowning here, people.

The pattern is Sherri McConnell’s “Sugar Pine Pillows” from her Fresh Family Traditions book. I followed the pattern exactly, even down to the quilting.

I didn’t have any pieces of the snowman fabric large enough for the backing, so I ordered some cute Dear Stella Tinsel Town fabric for the backing and binding, which was wonderful because the cute little snowman fabric has been catching my eye for months.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep these or if I’ll give them away. My kids think they’re pretty awesome, and they’re rather festive…so, we’ll see.

Linking up with:

Scraps Monday @ A Quilting Life

Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Hearts

Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Needle & Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Finish It Up Friday @ crazymomquilts

Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday @ TGIFF

Link a Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Scrap Happy Saturday @ SoScrappy

Uniquely Yours Quilt Block Swap 2015

February 24, 2015February 24, 20151 Comment

I thought I would be brave this year and join an online quilt block swap, but every single one that I went to sign up for had already closed its registration. So, I posed the idea to my friends on Facebook–anyone wanna do a quilt block swap with me this year?

Happily, seven other women thought it sounded like fun, and so here we are in our first month of our swap. Our members range from not knowing how to thread their sewing machines to blue ribbon winners at the local Fair. It’s pretty awesome–we’re all sharing what we know, and we’re asking questions when we don’t know what we’re doing.

Seeing that we have such a range of experience, our swap is starting with the easiest types of skills and blocks and then taking it up a notch each month. By the end of the year we should be masters of half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles and corner piecing; but first we’re starting out with straight square patchwork.

This month’s “Queen Bee” chose the “Streak of Lightning” block from QuiltersCache.com, but with a twist: she wanted each colored block to be different, and to tell something about the creator of the block. I made my block, plus one extra for a friend who doesn’t have time this month because she’s moving, and settled back to bask in my awesome “I’m all done”-ness.

But then I went to square up my block to 12.5″ and found, to my horror, that my block didn’t even measure in at 12 inches! Sigh. I ripped out all the seams and tried again, taking extra care this time to get my seam allowances to be truly scant. My second attempt measured in at a near perfect 12.5″. Whew!

I won’t post a picture of the swap blocks just yet, so as to keep their appearance a bit of a surprise for the recipient, but I have decided that I’m going to make a Swap Sampler Quilt with some Michael Miller “Spring Couture” precuts that have been waiting patiently in the stash for such a thing. and I will show those blocks to you:

I was feeling rather springtime-ish when I started making these up, so I went with some fresh greens. Upon further consideration, I probably should have gone with some pinks and purples, seeing that this was February’s block, which would suggest Valentine’s Day. Oh well, I’ll try to remember that for next year.

I ran into some seam allowance problems with these as well, and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. Turns out that my 2.5″ strips are actually 2. 625″ strips–a full 1/8″ larger than they’re supposed to be! Ugh. Oh well, now I know, and I’m just going to keep them as is as a “sweet” memory of all the seam allowance problems I had with this particular block. They’re still pretty.

I’ll post the Queen Bee’s block once I know that she’s received them. Happy Swapping!

The Strutting Will Happen Later

February 10, 2015February 10, 20151 Comment

It’s interesting how much my mood changes based upon whether or not I’m sticking to the schedule I’ve laid out for myself in regards to making progress on creative projects. Falling behind equals feeling gloomy, and checking every step off on the day they’re supposed to be checked off equals a little bit of swagger. “Oh yeah, I am owning this spreadsheet!”

I’ve struggled to stay on track with the Peacock Stole since we’ve returned home, so I decided to slow down on its creation, opting to shoot for twelve rows a week instead of twenty. Perhaps it will stay at this rate until it’s done; or maybe I’ll find a little bit of internal kindling in the future to step up the progress to its former level.

I’m recovering from a new bout of back pain which has me laid out on the couch for large portions of the day. It’s been three weeks since it started up again, and I probably have three to nine more weeks of taking it easy and letting the discs heal. It’s very frustrating, but I am thankful that I have projects that can move ahead while I’m stuck on my back.

So, while I can’t literally strut over the progress I’m making on the Peacock Stole, I’m feeling rather proud of how well I’m doing in moving ahead on it. Progress is inhibited by the necessity of taking some medications that make it hard to concentrate on reading and executing lace knitting, but I’ve been playing it safe and not knitting when I’m taking those medicines. (Good news: Haven’t taken any medicines in that category in over a week.) There was an evening where I was thinking I could probably handle knitting “under the influence,” but then I walked into a wall and thought that maybe I’d just play it safe instead. Patience, patience.

To date: Row #100 on the second half. At the new rate of 12 rows per week, I’m expecting a completion date in July.

Star Spangled Diamond Quilt, Back in the USA

February 6, 2015February 9, 201510 Comments

The Star Spangled Diamond Quilt continues to grow, albeit at a much slower rate than it did in Australia. It’s funny how shaving two hours off of your kids’ school bus commute and having them be in sports again will do that, huh? I’ve “lost” about four hours each weekday now that we’re back, which is twenty hours a week that I no longer have for crafting. I’m glad they’re able to do sports again, so I try not to stew on the topic. Ha ha. My main job right now is raising my children, so it’s all OK. Just think of all the EPP I can do at tournaments in the future, right? 😉

Alright, so I have thirty-six star units attached to each other, and I sewed up a strip of seven more star units to attach to one side in order to make things symmetrical. (No idea why I did seven…I guess I was stressed about the impending move back to the States and it hampered my ability to count?) So, that strip still needs to be attached. Forty-three units right there. My quick counting in my head of how many I’ll need to complete the top, now that I had to add that extra column, is eighty-eight units. Oh, hey, look at that! Almost exactly half right there in that photo.

I did uncover six more completed units, so to date I have made forty-nine of these things, with thirty-nine left to go. Ha ha, I originally thought I would finish this in six months. What an innocent. And let’s not even think about the filler units that I’ll need to pop on the ends of those shorter columns and all the way up the sides, K? Oh, this quilt.

I’m quite pleased with this little unit; Junebug picked out a little fat eighth of the main fabric in Australia and so I think there will only be one that looks like this, and I love it dearly. So cute!

Alright, the rundown:

February count: